The present invention relates to an apparatus for winding a strand or strands of glass fibers and, more particularly, to an improvement in the construction of the waste strand winding portion of an winding collet.
In the production of a strand of glass fibers, a multiplicity of filaments are drawn from a bushing and, after being coated with a lubricant size, the filaments are gathered into one or more strands which are then wound around a winding tube through a traversing motion to be directly formed into a package by means of a strand winding apparatus. A typical known winding apparatus for winding the strand of glass fibers has a pair of winding collets mounted on a rotatable turret so as to diametrically oppose to each other. In operation, one of these collets is stationed at the winding position and, when the winding tube of this collet has become full, the turret is rotated 180.degree. to bring the other collet having empty winding tube into the winding position so that the strand is transferred from the full winding tube to the empty tube thereby to permit a continuous winding without any suspension of the work.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,329 discloses a winding apparatus of the type described in which after the strand is transferred from the full winding tube to the empty tube, the portion of the strand bridged between the both winding tubes is automatically cut due to an increase of its tension which is naturally resulted from continuous rotation of the both winding collets after interchanging their positions. In this apparatus, the waste strand winding portion provided at the free end of each winding collet is coaxially formed with a frusto-conical strand guide surface and provided with a fixed member such as pin, hook, guide plate or the like which is arranged to project towards the portion of the guide surface adjacent to the small-diameter end thereof. In transfer operation, the strand brought into contact with the waste strand winding portion of the collet carrying the empty winding tube is moved along the frusto-conical guide surface towards the small-diameter end thereof owing to the winding tension and, just before reaching the small-diameter end, it is caught by the fixed member. As the both collets are rotated continuously, the tension of the strand caught by the fixed member is gradually increased and finally the strand is cut at a point at which the strand is hooked by the edge of the fixed member. In this apparatus, since the trapping and cutting of the strand by the fixed member is concentrated to one point of the strand, the trapping of the strand is often failed. This problem is enhanced particularly when the apparatus is used with a strand consisting of filaments of a small diameter and subjected to a large winding tension. In addition, since the fixed member is repeatedly frictioned by the strand, it is worn down rapidly and the lubricant size adhered to the strand tends to be accumulated in the area around the fixed member. In order to maintain the apparatus in good order, it is necessary to suspend the operation of the winding apparatus frequently for cleaning the apparatus.